Biofuels and biopolymers have been increasingly developed for use in the energy and manufacturing sectors, respectively. Biofuels offer an attractive alternative to replace fossil fuels, which are expensive, in short supply, and capable of causing egregious environmental devastation, as underscored by the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as well as by trends in global warming. Biofuels are generally produced from plant materials, vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases. Currently, starch (e.g., corn, wheat, barley, etc.) and sugar crops (e.g., sugarcane, beet, etc.) are the major feedstocks used for bioconversion to ethanol, a major biofuel. However, such field crops have drawbacks in that they have high costs and are non-sustainable.
Biopolymers offer an attractive replacement to conventional plastics, such as plastics derived from polystyrene or polyethylene, which are not biodegradable and which require significant resources to produce.
Despite their appeal, the production of biofuels and biopolymers can be problematic. Large amounts of energy and money are often needed, for example to grow crops, make fertilizers and pesticides, and process plants. Microorganisms offer the potential to produce biofuels or biopolymers. However, like plant-based biofuels, microorganism-based biofuels can also be an inefficient process. High financial and energy costs of producing feedstock can be one barrier to large-scale production of biofuels or biopolymers from microorganisms. There is therefore a need in the art for new microorganism cultures, as well as new methods of culturing microorganisms, especially methods and cultures that require relatively small amounts of energetic inputs.